How reviews work
Last updated: 27 June 2026
How reviews are collected
They Vouch collects reviews through two routes: post-purchase invitations and open submissions. The two routes are treated differently on the public profile and in moderation.
Post-purchase invitations
After a confirmed purchase, the merchant's order records trigger a review invitation sent to the buyer's email address. The invitation contains a signed HMAC token that cryptographically ties the review to a specific transaction. A reviewer who follows the invitation link can leave a seller review, a product review for any item in the order, or a service review for the buying experience.
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Purchase confirmed
The merchant's order records confirm a completed purchase, associated with the buyer's email and the specific products bought.
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Signed invitation dispatched
They Vouch generates an HMAC-signed token containing the order reference and sends the invitation email. The token has a configurable expiry (default: 90 days).
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Reviewer follows the link
The token is validated on arrival. If valid, the reviewer sees the review form pre-populated with the product(s) from their order. The token is single-use.
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Review enters moderation
The submitted review is flagged as invitation-sourced and enters the automated moderation pipeline. On passing, it publishes with a verified purchase badge.
Open submissions
Anyone can submit a review via a merchant's public profile without an invitation. Open submissions require email verification before entering moderation. On publication, open submissions display without a verified purchase badge. The distinction is always visible to shoppers.
Merchants cannot disable open submissions for their profile. Open submissions are part of the platform's commitment to allowing genuine buyer feedback regardless of whether the merchant sent an invitation.
Invitation volume is not capped. There is no monthly limit on the number of invitations a merchant can send. This is a deliberate policy: invitation caps restrict the voice of genuine buyers, which is contrary to the purpose of a review platform.
What “verified purchase” means
The verified purchase badge on a review means exactly one thing: the review was submitted by someone who followed a valid, unexpired invitation token tied to a real transaction record in the merchant's order history.
This badge appears only when all three conditions are met:
- The reviewer followed a signed HMAC invitation link (not a direct URL)
- The invitation token was valid (not expired, not previously redeemed)
- The token resolves to a confirmed order in the merchant's records
The badge does not mean the review itself is positive, accurate, or representative. It means the reviewer bought from the merchant. A verified purchaser can leave a one-star review. That review carries the badge and is not disadvantaged by the moderation process compared to a five-star review.
Incentivised reviews, where the reviewer was offered a discount or reward for leaving a review, are disclosed on the review if the invitation carried an incentive flag. Incentive disclosure is visible on the public profile.
The moderation pipeline
Every submitted review, invitation-sourced or open, passes through the same automated moderation pipeline before it is published. There is no path to publication that bypasses this pipeline.
The automated pipeline checks every review for toxicity score, profanity, personally identifiable information (PII), minimum length, and language consistency. Reviews that pass all checks publish automatically. Reviews that breach a threshold enter the They Vouch staff moderation queue.
Legal-risk flags, content that is potentially defamatory, illegal, or contains PII from a third party, trigger an automatic 4-hour hide and a priority queue. A member of They Vouch staff reviews and resolves these within the SLA.
Merchant disputes
A merchant can flag a review as disputed. Disputed reviews enter the staff arbitration track, not the standard queue. They Vouch staff review the dispute against the platform's content moderation policies and make the final determination. Merchants are notified of the outcome. The process is structurally independent: They Vouch staff make the determination, not the merchant.
A review that is disputed by a merchant but does not breach content moderation policy remains published unchanged. The dispute outcome is not visible to shoppers.
The removal policy
No paid review removal.
They Vouch will not remove a review at a merchant's request, regardless of payment, partnership, or commercial relationship.
The only reason a review is removed is that it has failed content moderation policies, automated and manual, applied uniformly to every review on the platform.
This policy applies without exception. A merchant on an Enterprise plan has the same removal rights as a merchant on the smallest plan: none, beyond the dispute process described above. The Vendably commercial relationship with a merchant is completely decoupled from moderation outcomes.
Reviews are permanent records unless they fail content moderation or the reviewer exercises their right to erasure under GDPR. A review that is accurate, genuine, and not in breach of content policy remains published regardless of its rating, its commercial impact on the merchant, or any request made to They Vouch.
The full list of content moderation grounds, the specific policy rules under which a review may be removed, is set out in the content guidelines.
Read the full content guidelinesWhat merchants can and cannot do
Merchants have defined rights and responsibilities within the platform. The distinction between permitted and prohibited actions is absolute.
| Merchants can | Merchants cannot |
|---|---|
| Yes: Respond publicly to any review (one response per review, 24h edit window) | No: Request removal of a review based on rating or content |
| Yes: Flag a review for staff review under a documented flag reason code | No: Pay or offer incentives to have a review removed or suppressed |
| Yes: Send post-purchase invitations with no volume cap | No: Offer incentives to reviewers without disclosure |
| Yes: Request erasure of a review under GDPR right-to-erasure (reviewer's right, not merchant's) | No: Access reviewer identity beyond what the reviewer disclosed publicly |
| Yes: Import historical reviews from a prior platform via an import adapter | No: Selectively import reviews (all or none per source batch; no cherry-picking) |
Content moderation policies
The full content moderation policies, including the grounds on which a review may be removed, the flag reason codes, moderation SLAs, and the shopper appeal process, are set out in the content guidelines. The table below shows the published SLA windows by flag severity.
| Flag reason | SLA window |
|---|---|
| Legal-risk content (defamation, illegal content, third-party PII) | 4-hour hide, priority queue |
| Merchant dispute (arbitration track) | 48 hours to 7 days, by complexity |
| Shopper flag (standard queue) | Published SLA window applies |
Erasure and GDPR
Reviewers have the right to request erasure of their personal data under GDPR. Vendably processes erasure requests within 30 days. On completion of an erasure request:
- The reviewer's name, email address, and any identifying information is anonymised or removed from the review record
- The rating value of the review is preserved in the merchant's aggregate score; the statistical contribution is not reversed
- The review text is deleted if it was authored by the reviewer; it remains if it contains no personally identifiable content
- Merchant responses to the review are retained as Vendably-controlled content, not subject to the reviewer's erasure request
Erasure requests are made by the reviewer, not by the merchant. A merchant cannot trigger an erasure request on behalf of a reviewer. The presence of a review is not grounds for a merchant to initiate a GDPR request.
Vendably acts as data processor for reviewer PII on behalf of the merchant (who is data controller under their privacy policy) and as independent data controller for platform-level review integrity data. For full details, see the privacy policy.
How AI summaries are generated
Where a merchant profile shows an AI-generated summary of its reviews, the summary is produced by Able, Vendably's AI layer, from the text of published reviews only. Able reads reviews that have already passed independent moderation; it does not see disputed, unpublished, or removed content.
The summary synthesises recurring themes across published reviews. It does not author an opinion, does not rank the merchant against competitors, and does not draw on any source outside the merchant's own published review text.
Summaries refresh periodically as new reviews are published; the summary shown on a profile reflects the review text available at the time of the most recent refresh, not necessarily the current moment.
Flag a review
Shoppers can flag any review on the public profile if they believe it breaches the platform's content policies. Flagging a review does not remove it immediately. The flag enters the staff moderation queue under the applicable SLA.
To flag a review, visit the merchant's public profile, open the review, and use the flag action on the review card. You will be asked to select a reason code and optionally provide additional context.
Find a merchant profilePlatform independence
They Vouch operates as part of the Vendably platform, but its moderation function is structurally independent of the commercial relationship between Vendably and its merchants. The team that moderates reviews is not the same team that manages merchant accounts. Moderation staff do not have access to merchant account values, subscription tiers, or commercial terms.
Every verified purchase badge means the same three things, everywhere.
Signed invitation link, unexpired token, confirmed order. No exceptions for plan tier, no exceptions for commercial relationship.
Review data is not sold to third parties. Review aggregates are published on the public profile and in the Google Product Review Feed for the merchant's own benefit. No review data is used to derive advertising profiles of shoppers.
Vendably acts as aggregator in the Google Product Review Feed under the terms of the Google Product Ratings programme. The merchant is the publisher. Vendably's aggregator status is subject to Google's programme policies and is separate from any advertising relationship between Vendably and Google.